Shir Hofstetter

Research title
MRI study of the temporal and spatial evolution of neuroplasticity

Research project

Diverse physiological processes underlie the brains aptitude to learn, acquire expertise or adapt to a new environment. Both functional and structural plasticity facilitate these abilities. The study of neuroplasticity in the human and non-human brain achieved great advancement in recent years, in part owing to magnetic resonance imaging studies that were shown to be able to locate and track the structural changes that accompany learning. Nonetheless, the understanding of this vast process is far for being complete. The dynamic features of structural plasticity, how they evolve in time and emerge in different brain regions is yet to be resolved. As neuroplasticity is a fundamental process that underlie learning and behavior, it is imperative to understand the basic characteristics in the healthy brain in order to diagnose and evaluate maladaptive or inadequate plasticity in a state of disease. My research focus on tracing structural changes induced by short-term learning experience using techniques that are sensitive to tissues microstructure such as diffusion tensor imaging. We aim to test the dynamic and timescale of tissue remodeling in the white and gray matter of both human subjects and rodents.

Meetings

Poster presentation in the 22th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Geneva, Switzerland. June 2016

Poster presentation in the 21th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Honolulu, Hawaii. June 2015

Speaker in the 23rd annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Toronto, Canada. May 2015

Poster presentation in the 23rd annual meeting of the Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN), Eilat, Israel. December 2014

Poster presentation in the 20th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Hamburg, Germany. June 2014

Poster presentation in the 22nd annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Milan, Italy. May 2014

Poster presentation in the 22nd annual meeting of the Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN), Eilat, Israel. December 2013